First thing to do is laugh at the several comments on Eham reviews about the box being 'cheap plastic'. Well, both those statements are probably true, but that doesn't make it a weak or poor enclosure. It's just a circuit enclosure, with what seems to be perfectly good RF shielding (I think it has foil shielding inside, but if that's not enough for you, it's hardly difficult to add some more!)
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| My new RSP1a, with grounding clip! |
The SDRUno software is also very easy to understand without instruction and nicely thought out. Ehammers, of course, criticise this as well!
Connection of the unit to my computer posed no problem or difficulty at all - you just plug it in and you're off straight away!
The only slight problem I had was getting the sound to route properly from Virtual Cable into WSJT-X. Also, I usually have my main rig running as CAT-controlled, so for non-CAT use (though the RSP1a can be configured to run as a CAT unit), you have to select 'none' in WSJT-X CAT control. This has worked properly only very recently, but wouldn't work at all today. Was this due to the recent WSJT-X update, or something I didn't understand?
It turns out that I had to connect the main Yaesu rig up, run WSJT-X select 'none' for CAT, then switch WSJT-X off. Then connect the SDR and start WSJT-X again. Problem solved!
On the audio side, a bit of online digging revealed a useful video that suggested once I had selected Virtual Cable as the audio input stream into SDRUno, you had to press 'Stop' on the receiver, and then 'Play' again. This solved the problem as promised.
I did notice some very big frequency drifts at the start, but these soon settled down to nice straight WSPR lines. A couple of software selections probably helped that along, too. Sensitivity and decode rate seems to be very good at the moment, as this shot of the previous 30 minutes at around 17:20UT today shows (global spots plot of those hearing FR4RX, i.e. just me and Antarctica!)
And on 30m, the RSP1a is doing similarly well this morning (30 minute slot of global VK3DQL spots, back from 09:57UT):
We'll see how well this unit brings me in on the WSPR listening challenge over coming days, though I suspect that will have to wait until any constests this weekend have fallen silent. One thought is whether the laptop, which now has to act as a fully-featured SDR receiver as well as run WSJT-X and Virtual Cable, will be caused to yield fewer decodes as a result of heavier processing demand.
2 comments:
I bought one of these just over a month back. it works really well and is comparable to my much more expensive Elad SDR. I really didn't like the plastic case so upgraded with a metal enclosure I found on Ebay. I have found SDR Uno to be a steep learning curve for me but am sticking with it for now. I run SDR console on my other SDR's which in my opinion has a simpler interface.
Hi Kevin. Very interesting to hear about how this compares with the Elad. I think I must be glad I didn't buy the more expensive offering! To be honest, I think SDRPlay are perhaps selling the RSP1a on the wrong footing. Maybe they want most people on the HF side to buy the HF+ model, which is a lot more money. But as the RSP1a is at least as good as, and probably a bit better my FT-450, and that the RSP1a is putting me in top place on the 14MHz WSPR challenge, then this combination is good enough for me for a while!
Also interested in the metal enclosure. I will have to take a look!
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